Should you be looking for an example of hucksterish cynicism, then the mantra that "data is the new oil" is as good as they come. Although its first recorded uttering goes as far back as 2006, in recent times it has achieved the status of an approved corporate cliche, though nowadays "data" is generally qualified by the adjective "big."
And if you want a measure of how deeply the cliche has penetrated the collective unconscious, ponder this: a Google search for "big data" turns up more than 1.5 billion results. And a search for "data mining" turns up 167 million results.
The idea of big data as a metaphor for oil is seductive. It's also revealing in interesting ways. Given that the oil business is one of the biggest industries in the history of the world, for example, the metaphor hints at untold future riches. But it conveniently skates over the fact that oil wealth overwhelmingly benefits either ruling elites in corrupt and/or authoritarian countries, or huge corporations in democratic states.
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